Beautifully engraved uncancelled stock certificate from the Wyman-Gordon Company issued no later than 1972. This historic document was printed by George H. Ellis Company and has an ornate border around it. This item has the printed signatures of the Company's President and Treasurer, and is over 39 years old. 1883 - Founded in 1883 in Worcester, MA 1946 - Grafton, MA plant is built 1988 - Acquires PFI investment cast facilities W-G Carson City and W-G San Leandro 1990 - Acquires Arwood investment cast facilities W-G Groton, W-G Franklin and W-G Tilton 1994 - Acquires 79 year old Cameron Forge W-G Brighton, W-G Houston and W-G Livingston 1999 - Acquired by PCC 2000 - Acquires UEF W-G Lincoln 2000 - Plzen, Czech Republic plant is built 2001 - Acquires The Drop Drop Dies and Forging Company W-G Cleveland 2001 - Acquires Facility in Kladno Wyman-Gordon Facts Division Headquarters located in Houston, TX Manufacturing sites in 5 countries 11 plants worldwide 3,400 employees
Below is from the International Directory of Company Histories, Vol. 14. St. James Press, 1996. Statistics: Public Company Incorporated: 1883 Operating Revenues: $380 million Employees: 2,200 Stock Exchanges: New York SICs: 3463 Nonferrous Forgings; 3462 Iron & Steel Forgings Company History: Wyman-Gordon Company is one of the largest manufacturers of forgings, castings, engine components, and composite structures for the aerospace, mining, agricultural, construction, and forestry industries. The company lists an impressive string of accomplishments, including the following: it was the first to commercially develop the science of "heat treating," the first to manufacture a titanium support beam for the landing gear of the new 747 airplane, and the first to produce the largest closed-die forging of titanium in the world. In 1883 H. Winfield Wyman and Lyman F. Gordon, recent graduates of Worcester Polytechnic Institute, started a company for the purpose of forging loom crankshafts. The Wyman-Gordon Company factory consisted of a small wooden building with five board-drop hammers, two Bradley Helv hammers, and two die sinking pieces of equipment. A 50-horsepower Wheelock steam engine provided power for the machines, and a total of eight people worked in the firm. Horace Wyman and Albert Gordon, the fathers of the two young men, both worked in management at Crompton Loom Works, and were instrumental in helping the new company procure contracts for loom crankshafts made of iron and other various forgings for micrometer frames and pistol parts. The company's process of forging, an ancient art, is a well-known procedure for shaping various kinds of metal. The forging consists of a piece of metal that has been heated and worked between dies to create a shape. The part of the process that involves "working" the metal actually gives the piece a certain ductility and toughness that is not gained by any other process. Castings, on the other hand, are achieved by pouring molten iron, for example, into a previously shaped container that is subsequently removed when the metal solidifies. Forged metal has always been considered to have more beneficial properties than cast metal. As Wyman-Gordon's reputation for high-quality forged metals began to spread along the eastern coast of the United States, the company began to garner contracts from new industries such as the bicycle, railroad, and automobile businesses. The company began to forge metal parts including pedals, sprockets, and spindles for bicycles, as well as automatic couplers for railroad cars. The most important contracts, however, which came between 1902 and 1904, involved forging crankshafts for 35 young companies that were producing the newfangled "horseless carriages." With the beginning of World War I, Wyman-Gordon was contracted by the United States government to provide forgings for airplane engines. The Curtis Jenny, a large biplane with a 90-horsepower engine, was the first project for which the company provided crankshafts and other forgings. Soon Wyman-Gordon was manufacturing various engine and airframe forgings for almost every airplane used by the U.S. military during World War I. After the war, and continuing throughout the 1920s and 1930s, the company developed a close relationship both with the commercial and military airplane industries. Wyman-Gordon became the leading and most sought-after producer of engine and component forgings for airplane engines and airframes. Parts not only for engines, but crankshafts, propellers, and landing gear formed the nucleus of the company's products during these two decades. With increasing requests for its heavy-duty, durable forgings, the company expanded its factory in Worcester and opened a new facility in Harvey, Illinois. World War II helped Wyman-Gordon achieve even greater prominence within the industry. The company was contracted by almost every American airplane manufacturer to supply engine parts and airframe components. During the war, every plane in combat included either engine parts, a crankshaft, structural airframe components, propeller mechanisms, or landing gear parts that were forged by Wyman-Gordon. By the end of World War II, the company had forged more aviation parts and components than that of the entire rest of the industry combined. As World War II began to wind down, the aviation industry changed dramatically with the development of the jet engine. Wyman-Gordon had built its reputation on forgings for propeller airplanes, which sometimes included over 120 forgings for a single propeller mechanism. The early jet engines, by contrast, included perhaps a dozen large forgings with no propeller. In addition, forgings made for airplanes before the jet age were only required to meet standards for tensile strength. New jet engines required forgings to meet not only the standards of tensile strength, but also standards involving greater durability, heat tolerance, and lighter weight. During the 1950s, Wyman-Gordon met the challenges posed by the development of the jet engine with characteristic efficiency. The company retooled its facilities and kept up with the torrid pace of ever-changing jet engine designs. Engineers at the firm worked on forgings for turbines and compressors, calculated increased speeds and stresses on various metals used in aviation designs, and helped airplane manufacturers improve the operating temperature for jet engine forgings. In the early 1950s, during the Korean War, the company was producing a lower number of forgings for jet engines than for the earlier piston-driven engines, but the value per part was much higher. The growing demand for additional power, in combination with the request for lighter-weight forgings, led to the development of new alloys. Wyman-Gordon was at the forefront of these developments as one of the few facilities in the United States capable of forging titanium. The first major forging involving the metal was for compressor discs used in Pratt & Whitney engines. These engines were part of the design for the Century Series fighter planes which flew combat missions during the Korean War. Additional titanium components were sold to Westinghouse and General Electric for use in engines designed for both commercial and military use. During the mid-1950s, Wyman-Gordon forged titanium components for engines that powered the B-52 bomber, the Boeing 707, and the KC-135 transport aircraft. Structural applications of the titanium alloy were used by the company to cast the engine for the Minuteman Missile. The company's production facilities grew at a rapid rate to meet the demands for new alloys and highly technical applications of these metals. Outside North Grafton, a short way from Worcester, Wyman-Gordon constructed a series of three hydraulic presses with an 18,000 ton capacity, a 35,000 ton capacity, and a 50,000 ton capacity. The 50,000 ton capacity hydraulic press was the largest forging press ever built in the United States. The company also developed new techniques to produce alloys such as titanium, including forging superalloys at extremely high temperatures within a vacuum and compacting metals in powder form under such high pressures of intensely heated gases that they take the shape desired. By the early 1960s, Wyman-Gordon facilities and technical expertise were recognized throughout the industry as the best in the United States. At this time, the U.S. Air Force asked the company to design and produce an airframe for the SR-71 aircraft. Company engineers responded by developing an alloy that was nearly 60 percent stronger than any of the known alloys employing titanium. When Boeing asked Wyman-Gordon to produce a giant titanium support beam for the landing gear of its new 747, Wyman-Gordon used its 50,000 ton hydraulic press to create the largest closed-die titanium forging ever achieved in the industry. The company went on to produce over 1,000 more of these forgings in later years. During the Vietnam War, engineers at the firm developed titanium forgings for the F-4 fighter plane, and also produced more forged titanium rotor hubs for helicopters than any other American company. During the early 1970s, Wyman-Gordon produced an increasing number of titanium forged engine components for the Titan and Minuteman missiles. The U.S. Airforce development of the F-14 and F-15 fighter planes also required an increased number of titanium forged engine components and structural airframe parts. At this time, Wyman-Gordon was the leading supplier of forged titanium engine parts, including such items as fan discs and compressors. In fact, the company's presence was so dominant within the industry that every commercial and military jet airplane, and every model of helicopter and missile, included a titanium forging produced at one of the Wyman-Gordon plants. In 1978 the company received requests for forged titanium parts for 280 different types of aircraft from commercial airplane manufacturers. Two years later, requests for forged titanium parts had ballooned to include more than 700 different types of aircraft. Unfortunately, however, producers of titanium sponge and melters remained skeptical about the growing demand for titanium and refused to increase their capacity. As a result, companies that forged titanium were placed on an extremely limited allocation system. Since Wyman-Gordon was the largest forger of titanium engine parts in the United States, the company was hard hit by the unexpected turn of events. Determined not to let this happen again, Wyman-Gordon decided to enter the field of titanium manufacturing and production. In the early 1980s, at a cost of only $12 million, Wyman-Gordon acquired a majority stake in International Titanium, Inc., in Moses Lake, Washington. With technical advice provided by Wyman-Gordon engineers, International Titanium began to produce titanium sponge using the most up-to-date technology. Continuing its strategy of vertical integration, management constructed a brand new Aerospace Alloys Center in Millbury, Massachusetts. At a cost of $11 million, this facility enabled Wyman-Gordon engineers to melt and alloy the sponge delivered from International Titanium. This new facility was built near the company's Grafton plant, and soon provided nearly half of all the titanium ingot used by Wyman-Gordon's plants. The company now controlled all the essential technologies involved in producing titanium components, including sponge manufacturing, melting and alloying, and the forging process. As a result, customer orders began to increase due to customers' confidence that Wyman-Gordon could provide an uninterrupted supply of titanium forged parts. The increase in orders for titanium parts forged by Wyman-Gordon was short-lived however. By the late 1980s, the decrease in orders from commercial airline companies, and the end of the Cold War which resulted in declining defense expenditures, began to undermine Wyman-Gordon's traditional base of support. The company responded by laying off employees and reducing administrative and organizational costs. Yet even worse times were ahead. By early 1993, the aerospace industry business had declined by a whopping 40 percent since the lucrative days of the mid-1980s. Although new orders, such as Britain's contract with Lockheed for a fleet of C-130J cargo-carriers, a U.S. Air Force contract with McDonnell-Douglas for a number of C-17s, and projections for an annual increase in commercial airlines by the end of the decade promised a long-awaited resurgence for companies doing business with the aerospace industry, they were not enough to return Wyman-Gordon to profitability. Faced with grim financial prospects, management decided to acquire Cooper Industries' Cameron Forged Products Division in order to create a giant nickel alloy and titanium forging producer. The two companies held approximately 20 percent of the American titanium market, and the merger was reported to be the largest in the declining aerospace industry. In addition, Wyman-Gordon joined with Pratt & Whitney and Western Aerospace Ltd. to create Western Australian Specialty Alloys Proprietary Ltd. The new firm was formed to enter the superalloys market, but came under immediate criticism from competitors who claimed that the market was already saturated and that the joint venture would only hurt the industry. Wyman-Gordon management responded that their investment was for the long term, and could not be affected by the industry's short-term problems. Principal Subsidiaries: Precision Founders, Inc.; Sierra Cast, Inc.; Wyman-Gordon Investment Castings, Inc.; Wyman-Gordon Composite Technologies, Inc.; Wyman-Gordon Scaled Composites, Inc.; Wyman-Gordon Precision Composites, Inc.
Wyman-Gordon and Angel Technologies Sign Agreement for HALO-Proteus Aircraft MOJAVE, Calif.----Sept. 25, 1998-- Agreement Calls for Certification and Manufacturing of 100 HALO-Proteus Aircraft Following the Inaugural Flight of their new stratospheric aircraft, the HALO-Proteus(TM), Wyman-Gordon Company (Nasdaq:WYMN) and Angel Technologies Corporation have announced an agreement which provides that Angel will have exclusive rights to the HALO-Proteus(TM) aircraft for commercial telecommunications applications. Additionally, Angel will purchase its requirements for planes exclusively from Wyman-Gordon. The Agreement provides for increased investment in Angel Technologies Corporation by Wyman-Gordon Company. Angel Technologies is designing and building a communications network that utilizes the HALO-Proteus aircraft to carry a large communications antenna high above the center of a city. Circling at altitudes above 51,000 feet, the HALO-Proteus aircraft serves as the apex of Angel's HALO Network delivering a variety of fixed, portable and mobile wireless services including voice, data, images and video. The HALO Network will enable individual consumers and businesses to send and receive data at multi-megabit per second rates, hundreds to thousands of times faster than today's dial-up modem speeds. HALO Networks can be replicated over metropolitan centers throughout the world. The design and prototype construction of the HALO-Proteus aircraft was performed by Wyman-Gordon's subsidiary, Scaled Composites, under the direction of famed aircraft designer Burt Rutan. The agreement specifies terms under which Scaled Technology Works, a newly-formed Wyman-Gordon subsidiary, will certify and manufacture the aircraft at facilities recently constructed in Montrose, Colorado. If Angel exercises all of its options, the value of the contract will be approximately $760 million, and Angel Technologies will receive 100 aircraft to deploy its proprietary HALO Network over more than 30 cities worldwide. Three aircraft fly in shifts to provide a city with continuous coverage 7 days per week, 24 hours per day. Angel envisions the global market for wireless services delivered by HALO aircraft to be more than 200 cities. "Congratulations to Burt Rutan and his talented team at Scaled Composites on their successful design of the HALO-Proteus aircraft," said Marc Arnold, Chairman and CEO, Angel Technologies. "The aircraft is a remarkable blend of conventional technology and innovative design that uniquely fulfills Angel's requirements for wireless communications services. Today's Inaugural Flight, and the announcement of our long-term agreement with Wyman-Gordon is an important milestone in Angel's deployment of the HALO Network to supply low-cost broadband communications services that businesses are demanding." "We look forward to series manufacturing the HALO-Proteus aircraft as a communications platform to be deployed worldwide," said David Gruber, Chairman and CEO, Wyman-Gordon Company. "We believe that Angel's HALO Network is an excellent tremendous opportunity for Wyman-Gordon to use its core capabilities to participate in the significant growth of both the Internet and broadband communications marketplace as a manufacturer and a major investor. Manufacturing the HALO-Proteus aircraft is a natural outgrowth of our strengths and represents a significant growth opportunity for our company." "Until now, access to the stratosphere has been difficult and expensive," said Burt Rutan, President, Scaled Composites. "Angel's commercial communications application required us to design a high altitude airplane which can operate at lower cost and higher reliability than existing high altitude special purpose planes, such as the U-2. "The Proteus is an aircraft that will operate reliably above commercial air traffic at a small fraction of the cost it takes to operate existing piloted and unpiloted aircraft," said Rutan. When configured with a large communication antenna beneath the fuselage, the HALO-Proteus will support around-the-clock missions for communication applications. The HALO-Proteus aircraft will provide the commercial communication industry a reliable alternative infrastructure that can be deployed instantly, even when terrestrial infrastructure is missing or incomplete. Deploying new broadband data services in developed countries and wireless telephony services in the developing world with the HALO-Proteus aircraft is complementary to terrestrial and satellite alternatives. About Angel Technologies Angel Technologies Corporation, with headquarters in St. Louis, Mo., is a privately-held wireless communications company using proprietary High Altitude Long Operation (HALO(TM)) aircraft to deliver services worldwide. Augmenting terrestrial towers and orbiting satellites, Angel's HALO aircraft will fly fixed patterns in the stratosphere above major cities to deliver metropolitan wireless services at lower cost, with increased flexibility and improved quality of service. Teamed with corporate partners, Angel will deliver a variety of fixed and mobile wireless services including voice, data and video. The HALO Network will enable individual consumers and businesses to send and receive data at multi-megabit per second rates. It will be replicated over metropolitan centers throughout the world. Additional information can be found at website: http://www.angeltechnologies.com.
Below is from the International Directory of Company Histories, Vol. 14. St. James Press, 1996. Statistics: Public Company Incorporated: 1883 Operating Revenues: $380 million Employees: 2,200 Stock Exchanges: New York SICs: 3463 Nonferrous Forgings; 3462 Iron & Steel Forgings Company History: Wyman-Gordon Company is one of the largest manufacturers of forgings, castings, engine components, and composite structures for the aerospace, mining, agricultural, construction, and forestry industries. The company lists an impressive string of accomplishments, including the following: it was the first to commercially develop the science of "heat treating," the first to manufacture a titanium support beam for the landing gear of the new 747 airplane, and the first to produce the largest closed-die forging of titanium in the world. In 1883 H. Winfield Wyman and Lyman F. Gordon, recent graduates of Worcester Polytechnic Institute, started a company for the purpose of forging loom crankshafts. The Wyman-Gordon Company factory consisted of a small wooden building with five board-drop hammers, two Bradley Helv hammers, and two die sinking pieces of equipment. A 50-horsepower Wheelock steam engine provided power for the machines, and a total of eight people worked in the firm. Horace Wyman and Albert Gordon, the fathers of the two young men, both worked in management at Crompton Loom Works, and were instrumental in helping the new company procure contracts for loom crankshafts made of iron and other various forgings for micrometer frames and pistol parts. The company's process of forging, an ancient art, is a well-known procedure for shaping various kinds of metal. The forging consists of a piece of metal that has been heated and worked between dies to create a shape. The part of the process that involves "working" the metal actually gives the piece a certain ductility and toughness that is not gained by any other process. Castings, on the other hand, are achieved by pouring molten iron, for example, into a previously shaped container that is subsequently removed when the metal solidifies. Forged metal has always been considered to have more beneficial properties than cast metal. As Wyman-Gordon's reputation for high-quality forged metals began to spread along the eastern coast of the United States, the company began to garner contracts from new industries such as the bicycle, railroad, and automobile businesses. The company began to forge metal parts including pedals, sprockets, and spindles for bicycles, as well as automatic couplers for railroad cars. The most important contracts, however, which came between 1902 and 1904, involved forging crankshafts for 35 young companies that were producing the newfangled "horseless carriages." With the beginning of World War I, Wyman-Gordon was contracted by the United States government to provide forgings for airplane engines. The Curtis Jenny, a large biplane with a 90-horsepower engine, was the first project for which the company provided crankshafts and other forgings. Soon Wyman-Gordon was manufacturing various engine and airframe forgings for almost every airplane used by the U.S. military during World War I. After the war, and continuing throughout the 1920s and 1930s, the company developed a close relationship both with the commercial and military airplane industries. Wyman-Gordon became the leading and most sought-after producer of engine and component forgings for airplane engines and airframes. Parts not only for engines, but crankshafts, propellers, and landing gear formed the nucleus of the company's products during these two decades. With increasing requests for its heavy-duty, durable forgings, the company expanded its factory in Worcester and opened a new facility in Harvey, Illinois. World War II helped Wyman-Gordon achieve even greater prominence within the industry. The company was contracted by almost every American airplane manufacturer to supply engine parts and airframe components. During the war, every plane in combat included either engine parts, a crankshaft, structural airframe components, propeller mechanisms, or landing gear parts that were forged by Wyman-Gordon. By the end of World War II, the company had forged more aviation parts and components than that of the entire rest of the industry combined. As World War II began to wind down, the aviation industry changed dramatically with the development of the jet engine. Wyman-Gordon had built its reputation on forgings for propeller airplanes, which sometimes included over 120 forgings for a single propeller mechanism. The early jet engines, by contrast, included perhaps a dozen large forgings with no propeller. In addition, forgings made for airplanes before the jet age were only required to meet standards for tensile strength. New jet engines required forgings to meet not only the standards of tensile strength, but also standards involving greater durability, heat tolerance, and lighter weight. During the 1950s, Wyman-Gordon met the challenges posed by the development of the jet engine with characteristic efficiency. The company retooled its facilities and kept up with the torrid pace of ever-changing jet engine designs. Engineers at the firm worked on forgings for turbines and compressors, calculated increased speeds and stresses on various metals used in aviation designs, and helped airplane manufacturers improve the operating temperature for jet engine forgings. In the early 1950s, during the Korean War, the company was producing a lower number of forgings for jet engines than for the earlier piston-driven engines, but the value per part was much higher. The growing demand for additional power, in combination with the request for lighter-weight forgings, led to the development of new alloys. Wyman-Gordon was at the forefront of these developments as one of the few facilities in the United States capable of forging titanium. The first major forging involving the metal was for compressor discs used in Pratt & Whitney engines. These engines were part of the design for the Century Series fighter planes which flew combat missions during the Korean War. Additional titanium components were sold to Westinghouse and General Electric for use in engines designed for both commercial and military use. During the mid-1950s, Wyman-Gordon forged titanium components for engines that powered the B-52 bomber, the Boeing 707, and the KC-135 transport aircraft. Structural applications of the titanium alloy were used by the company to cast the engine for the Minuteman Missile. The company's production facilities grew at a rapid rate to meet the demands for new alloys and highly technical applications of these metals. Outside North Grafton, a short way from Worcester, Wyman-Gordon constructed a series of three hydraulic presses with an 18,000 ton capacity, a 35,000 ton capacity, and a 50,000 ton capacity. The 50,000 ton capacity hydraulic press was the largest forging press ever built in the United States. The company also developed new techniques to produce alloys such as titanium, including forging superalloys at extremely high temperatures within a vacuum and compacting metals in powder form under such high pressures of intensely heated gases that they take the shape desired. By the early 1960s, Wyman-Gordon facilities and technical expertise were recognized throughout the industry as the best in the United States. At this time, the U.S. Air Force asked the company to design and produce an airframe for the SR-71 aircraft. Company engineers responded by developing an alloy that was nearly 60 percent stronger than any of the known alloys employing titanium. When Boeing asked Wyman-Gordon to produce a giant titanium support beam for the landing gear of its new 747, Wyman-Gordon used its 50,000 ton hydraulic press to create the largest closed-die titanium forging ever achieved in the industry. The company went on to produce over 1,000 more of these forgings in later years. During the Vietnam War, engineers at the firm developed titanium forgings for the F-4 fighter plane, and also produced more forged titanium rotor hubs for helicopters than any other American company. During the early 1970s, Wyman-Gordon produced an increasing number of titanium forged engine components for the Titan and Minuteman missiles. The U.S. Airforce development of the F-14 and F-15 fighter planes also required an increased number of titanium forged engine components and structural airframe parts. At this time, Wyman-Gordon was the leading supplier of forged titanium engine parts, including such items as fan discs and compressors. In fact, the company's presence was so dominant within the industry that every commercial and military jet airplane, and every model of helicopter and missile, included a titanium forging produced at one of the Wyman-Gordon plants. In 1978 the company received requests for forged titanium parts for 280 different types of aircraft from commercial airplane manufacturers. Two years later, requests for forged titanium parts had ballooned to include more than 700 different types of aircraft. Unfortunately, however, producers of titanium sponge and melters remained skeptical about the growing demand for titanium and refused to increase their capacity. As a result, companies that forged titanium were placed on an extremely limited allocation system. Since Wyman-Gordon was the largest forger of titanium engine parts in the United States, the company was hard hit by the unexpected turn of events. Determined not to let this happen again, Wyman-Gordon decided to enter the field of titanium manufacturing and production. In the early 1980s, at a cost of only $12 million, Wyman-Gordon acquired a majority stake in International Titanium, Inc., in Moses Lake, Washington. With technical advice provided by Wyman-Gordon engineers, International Titanium began to produce titanium sponge using the most up-to-date technology. Continuing its strategy of vertical integration, management constructed a brand new Aerospace Alloys Center in Millbury, Massachusetts. At a cost of $11 million, this facility enabled Wyman-Gordon engineers to melt and alloy the sponge delivered from International Titanium. This new facility was built near the company's Grafton plant, and soon provided nearly half of all the titanium ingot used by Wyman-Gordon's plants. The company now controlled all the essential technologies involved in producing titanium components, including sponge manufacturing, melting and alloying, and the forging process. As a result, customer orders began to increase due to customers' confidence that Wyman-Gordon could provide an uninterrupted supply of titanium forged parts. The increase in orders for titanium parts forged by Wyman-Gordon was short-lived however. By the late 1980s, the decrease in orders from commercial airline companies, and the end of the Cold War which resulted in declining defense expenditures, began to undermine Wyman-Gordon's traditional base of support. The company responded by laying off employees and reducing administrative and organizational costs. Yet even worse times were ahead. By early 1993, the aerospace industry business had declined by a whopping 40 percent since the lucrative days of the mid-1980s. Although new orders, such as Britain's contract with Lockheed for a fleet of C-130J cargo-carriers, a U.S. Air Force contract with McDonnell-Douglas for a number of C-17s, and projections for an annual increase in commercial airlines by the end of the decade promised a long-awaited resurgence for companies doing business with the aerospace industry, they were not enough to return Wyman-Gordon to profitability. Faced with grim financial prospects, management decided to acquire Cooper Industries' Cameron Forged Products Division in order to create a giant nickel alloy and titanium forging producer. The two companies held approximately 20 percent of the American titanium market, and the merger was reported to be the largest in the declining aerospace industry. In addition, Wyman-Gordon joined with Pratt & Whitney and Western Aerospace Ltd. to create Western Australian Specialty Alloys Proprietary Ltd. The new firm was formed to enter the superalloys market, but came under immediate criticism from competitors who claimed that the market was already saturated and that the joint venture would only hurt the industry. Wyman-Gordon management responded that their investment was for the long term, and could not be affected by the industry's short-term problems. Principal Subsidiaries: Precision Founders, Inc.; Sierra Cast, Inc.; Wyman-Gordon Investment Castings, Inc.; Wyman-Gordon Composite Technologies, Inc.; Wyman-Gordon Scaled Composites, Inc.; Wyman-Gordon Precision Composites, Inc.
Wyman-Gordon and Angel Technologies Sign Agreement for HALO-Proteus Aircraft MOJAVE, Calif.----Sept. 25, 1998-- Agreement Calls for Certification and Manufacturing of 100 HALO-Proteus Aircraft Following the Inaugural Flight of their new stratospheric aircraft, the HALO-Proteus(TM), Wyman-Gordon Company (Nasdaq:WYMN) and Angel Technologies Corporation have announced an agreement which provides that Angel will have exclusive rights to the HALO-Proteus(TM) aircraft for commercial telecommunications applications. Additionally, Angel will purchase its requirements for planes exclusively from Wyman-Gordon. The Agreement provides for increased investment in Angel Technologies Corporation by Wyman-Gordon Company. Angel Technologies is designing and building a communications network that utilizes the HALO-Proteus aircraft to carry a large communications antenna high above the center of a city. Circling at altitudes above 51,000 feet, the HALO-Proteus aircraft serves as the apex of Angel's HALO Network delivering a variety of fixed, portable and mobile wireless services including voice, data, images and video. The HALO Network will enable individual consumers and businesses to send and receive data at multi-megabit per second rates, hundreds to thousands of times faster than today's dial-up modem speeds. HALO Networks can be replicated over metropolitan centers throughout the world. The design and prototype construction of the HALO-Proteus aircraft was performed by Wyman-Gordon's subsidiary, Scaled Composites, under the direction of famed aircraft designer Burt Rutan. The agreement specifies terms under which Scaled Technology Works, a newly-formed Wyman-Gordon subsidiary, will certify and manufacture the aircraft at facilities recently constructed in Montrose, Colorado. If Angel exercises all of its options, the value of the contract will be approximately $760 million, and Angel Technologies will receive 100 aircraft to deploy its proprietary HALO Network over more than 30 cities worldwide. Three aircraft fly in shifts to provide a city with continuous coverage 7 days per week, 24 hours per day. Angel envisions the global market for wireless services delivered by HALO aircraft to be more than 200 cities. "Congratulations to Burt Rutan and his talented team at Scaled Composites on their successful design of the HALO-Proteus aircraft," said Marc Arnold, Chairman and CEO, Angel Technologies. "The aircraft is a remarkable blend of conventional technology and innovative design that uniquely fulfills Angel's requirements for wireless communications services. Today's Inaugural Flight, and the announcement of our long-term agreement with Wyman-Gordon is an important milestone in Angel's deployment of the HALO Network to supply low-cost broadband communications services that businesses are demanding." "We look forward to series manufacturing the HALO-Proteus aircraft as a communications platform to be deployed worldwide," said David Gruber, Chairman and CEO, Wyman-Gordon Company. "We believe that Angel's HALO Network is an excellent tremendous opportunity for Wyman-Gordon to use its core capabilities to participate in the significant growth of both the Internet and broadband communications marketplace as a manufacturer and a major investor. Manufacturing the HALO-Proteus aircraft is a natural outgrowth of our strengths and represents a significant growth opportunity for our company." "Until now, access to the stratosphere has been difficult and expensive," said Burt Rutan, President, Scaled Composites. "Angel's commercial communications application required us to design a high altitude airplane which can operate at lower cost and higher reliability than existing high altitude special purpose planes, such as the U-2. "The Proteus is an aircraft that will operate reliably above commercial air traffic at a small fraction of the cost it takes to operate existing piloted and unpiloted aircraft," said Rutan. When configured with a large communication antenna beneath the fuselage, the HALO-Proteus will support around-the-clock missions for communication applications. The HALO-Proteus aircraft will provide the commercial communication industry a reliable alternative infrastructure that can be deployed instantly, even when terrestrial infrastructure is missing or incomplete. Deploying new broadband data services in developed countries and wireless telephony services in the developing world with the HALO-Proteus aircraft is complementary to terrestrial and satellite alternatives. About Angel Technologies Angel Technologies Corporation, with headquarters in St. Louis, Mo., is a privately-held wireless communications company using proprietary High Altitude Long Operation (HALO(TM)) aircraft to deliver services worldwide. Augmenting terrestrial towers and orbiting satellites, Angel's HALO aircraft will fly fixed patterns in the stratosphere above major cities to deliver metropolitan wireless services at lower cost, with increased flexibility and improved quality of service. Teamed with corporate partners, Angel will deliver a variety of fixed and mobile wireless services including voice, data and video. The HALO Network will enable individual consumers and businesses to send and receive data at multi-megabit per second rates. It will be replicated over metropolitan centers throughout the world. Additional information can be found at website: http://www.angeltechnologies.com.
